The discovery of the multiverse
In the year 2133, humanity was looking for answers to be able to travel beyond our solar system. The UIPG, as the current rulers of humanity, set some of their top scientists on the project, hoping to expand their reach and end problems of overcrowding and inequality on earth. One of these scientists was Harley Bracken, a theoretical physicist studying dark matter and the universe's building blocks. The goal was to make an engine of sorts that would allow faster than light travel, by manipulating space time in a way that 2 points across the universe could be connected (a wormwhole). Now, as Bracken tried to get to grips with creating a field capable of warping spacetime he uncovered one of mankind's greatest discoveries - the reality matrix. This is a web of energy links, so minuscule they had gone undetected for decades by science, and seemed to be the 'backbone' of spacetime, holding it all together. Bracken didn't know it at the time, but these links were formed right at the time of the big bang and were responsible for all the properties of our universe - gravity and forces, matter and particles, energy and information. It turns out the slightest alteration in their strength or connections could break all known laws we had applied to the universe, and their arrangement currently seemed to be random and insignificant. All this was great, but it wasn't Bracken's job. He shared his findings with others who soon showed the UIPG the importance of these energy bonds, but he went back to work on the FTL engine. Bracken thought that, should these energy bonds control the state of the universe, he could surely somehow alter them to create a hole in spacetime. After long days of little sleep and experimentation with various molecular forces, he finally constructed a device that could bend the energy bonds enough to let an amount of connected matter pass through the matrix - in other words: attach this thing to your spaceship and it'll be pulled through a wormhole into an new destination. Caught up in his excitement in having created the 'Bracken Jump Drive' he never really thought to check where this destination really was. He could program the drive to open an alternative wormhole at another point in space, yes, but never which space. And so a drive was inserted into a probe that was sent around jupiter to boost it into unoccupied space - then the drive was initiated, aimed at Proxima Centuri. After 30 minute timer was up, the probe started the drive again and re-appeared at its collection zone. Only the readings it gave baffled those monitoring the launch. It seemed the probe had arrived at a Proxima Centuri - but nothing like ours. It didn't take long before people started to figure out that the Bracken Jump Drive hadn't just taken this probe on a straight-forward measurable journey. No, this probe had been transported into another universe. One that seemed to function differently than ours. Another probe was strapped-up with the drive and teleported to this new universe and back - this time specialised in measuring the reality matrix. The results were unmistakable - the matrix in this universe, although sharing similar qualities, did NOT belong to that in which humanity resided. And thus came about the idea of 'reality zones' - worlds where the laws of the universe functioned in their own, unique way. The universe the first probe was sent into was creatively named 'zone 1'. The drive was then used again when probes entered zone 1, this time widening a new gap in the matrix. the probe was then pulled back, and the results analysed. A different matrix once again. Zone 2. How many zones were there? could humans survive? could we set up a colony? The UIPG had 101 questions, and wanted 101 answers. And thus started humanity's exploration into the multiverse. Category:Background information